Elgin

Elgin is an ancient city and royal burgh in north-east Scotland. It was the county town of Moray and holds the same position in the new unitary authority.

It was near Elgin that in 1034 Macbeth defeated and killed king Duncan I in battle to take the throne of Scotland.

Its cathedral was built during the 13th century but destroyed by fire in 1390, with the rest of the town, by Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, upset about his excommunication. The ruins still stand.

Daniel Defoe gave it a good write-up in his “A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain” (1724-6) for its obvious prosperity and pleasant surroundings.

Its name is immortalised in the Elgin Marbles, ancient Greek friezes and sculptures, from the Parthenon taken by the Earl of Elgin in the early 19th century that remain, controversially, in the British Museum.